Undine eBook

“It is all an illusion!” said he to himself.
“I must to my nuptial bed.”

“You must indeed, but to a cold one!”
he heard a voice, choked with sobs, repeat from without;
and then he saw in the mirror, that the door of his
room was slowly, slowly opened, and the white figure
entered, and gently closed it behind her.

“They have opened the spring,” said she
in a low tone; “and now I am here, and you must
die.”

He felt, in his failing breath, that this must indeed
be; but covering his eyes with his hands, he cried:
“Do not in my death-hour, do not make me mad
with terror. If that veil conceals hideous features,
do not lift it! Take my life, but let me not
see you.”

“Alas!” replied the pale figure, “will
you not then look upon me once more? I am as
fair now as when you wooed me on the island!”

“Oh, if it indeed were so,” sighed Huldbrand,
“and that I might die by a kiss from you!”

“Most willingly, my own love,” said she.
She threw back her veil; heavenly fair shone forth
her pure countenance. Trembling with love and
the awe of approaching death, the knight leant towards
her. She kissed him with a holy kiss; but she
relaxed not her hold, pressing him more closely in
her arms, and weeping as if she would weep away her
soul. Tears rushed into the knight’s eyes,
while a thrill both of bliss and agony shot through
his heart, until he at last expired, sinking softly
back from her fair arms upon the pillow of his couch
a corpse.

“I have wept him to death!” said she to
some domestics, who met her in the ante-chamber; and
passing through the terrified group, she went slowly
out, and disappeared in the fountain.

CHAPTER 10

Father Heilmann had returned to the castle as soon
as the death of the lord of Ringstetten was made known
in the neighbourhood; and he arrived at the very hour
when the monk who had married the unfortunate couple
was hurrying from the door, overcome with dismay and
horror.

When Father Heilmann was informed of this, he replied,
“It is all well; and now come the duties of
my office, in which I have no need of an assistant.”

He then began to console the bride, now a widow though
with little benefit to her worldly and thoughtless
spirit.

The old fisherman, on the other hand, though severely
afflicted, was far more resigned to the fate of his
son-in-law and daughter; and while Bertalda could
not refrain from accusing Undine as a murderess and
sorceress, the old man calmly said, “After all,
it could not happen otherwise. I see nothing
in it but the judgment of God; and no one’s
heart was more pierced by the death of Huldbrand than
she who was obliged to work it, the poor forsaken
Undine!”